What is this thing?

Today on "what is that thing", we present a quirky historical artifact from our collection: an antique glass fly trap. We have two in our archives, one of clear glass, the other a rather beautiful turquoise, made by Edward Haines (c.1806-1891), a gaffer (head glassblower) at the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company. This beautiful and functional piece was gifted to the Museum in 2015 by Jon and Jackie Wetz. There may have been a glass or cork stopper associated with it when it was used for its intended purpose, and apparently the rings around the neck are to suspend it from a wire, perhaps in a tree near the picnic spread, to keep it discreetly out of sight. Drop in a piece of rancid meat and watch your flying insect collection grow! Not at all obvious why these were made of clear glass; perhaps to make it easier to tell when to rinse the mess out and start over again? Or perhaps to allow the sun to warm up the contents and get really, really smelly? Who can say!

To see these in our searchable online archives, click on "Research" in the menu at the top of the page, then search on keyword "flytrap".